Do not yield to mobocracy, the Lokpal cannot end corruption

Barring the very corrupt, everyone would support the ongoing
campaign against corruption. But not either Team Anna’s specific solution or
the means it employs. In fact, there is every reason to oppose and condemn the
move to blackmail the government into conceding a very flawed demand.

A monolithic, all-powerful body that would hold every
functionary of the state including the judiciary to account, and investigate
and prosecute them if necessary, while itself being accountable to no one
except to the noble conscience of its exalted members — this, in effect, is Jan
Lokpal. If the good Lord delivers on his promise to sambhavami yuge yuge and takes birth as the Lokpal, this might
work. But, otherwise, it is completely hostile to democracy, in spirit,
principle and practice.

In a democracy, a system of checks and balances is supposed
to guard against concentration of power. In India, at present, the judiciary is
accountable to no one, and the executive, which controls the administrative
machinery that runs the country, is accountable to the legislature.

The legislature is accountable to the people who elect its
members. Administrative personnel are supposed to be accountable, as to both
performance and ethics, through their chain of command, to the political
executive. In practice, the administrative machinery is accountable to no one.
This absence of accountability has spawned poor governance and corruption.

But how come the administrative machinery is not accountable
to anyone? If the elected offices, manned by people’s representatives, are
effective, governance would stream into and light up our lives as naturally as
sunlight does. But our elected offices are compromised. They make use of the
administrative machinery to filch official funds, sell government patronage and
extort money from the public. When administration is thus suborned, only a
minority of civil servants stay ethical or even work.

What makes our elected offices so compromised? This is the
central question to be addressed in the battle against corruption. Without
clarity on this, the battle cannot succeed.

The politics of the world’s largest democracy runs on the
proceeds of corruption. All political parties finance their activity through
funds that are amassed by loot of the exchequer, sale of patronage and plain
extortion. Since political funding is an objective necessity, and the accepted
form of funding is corruption, elected offices are compromised.

Even if individual functionaries are not corrupt, the
parties they represent run on corruption and are compromised in this fashion.
This is true of all parties today. Corruption is not just endemic, but also
systemic. Reform of political funding is the key to ending corruption.

All
political expenditure should be declared and made contestable by political
rivals and watchdog bodies. All validated expenditure must be accounted for,
and all sources of financing, fully transparent. Once parties and politicians
have transparent funding, they will not need to be corrupt. Corruption will
cease to be systemic. Only then can the political executive hold the administrative
machinery to account for delivery of governance and ethical conduct.

A Lokpal
only offers a layer of deterrence. This is like relying on tough inspection
alone to check automobile pollution, without making cleaner fuel available,
minus lead and sulphur, and without an engine technology upgrade. Similarly,
without institutional reform of political funding, corruption cannot be
tackled. Yes, we need deterrence as well. A strong Lokpal is essential. The
entire political executive, including the PM, and senior civil servants should
come within its purview.

But
neither the judiciary nor Parliament can be accountable to this ombudsman. The
judiciary must be independent of the Lokpal to keep a check on it. And
Parliament’s accountability should be directly to the people. If MPs misbehave,
voters must have the right to recall them.

It is
entirely justified for a popular agitation to press for reform of laws and
institutions. So, the Anna mobilisation is most welcome. But not its disdain
for the institutions and procedures of democracy or its demand to overturn the
system of checks and balances that makes democracy work.

If it is
sufficient to mobilise a million people in Delhi, leave alone the lakh Anna has
brought out, to demand that Mayawati or Narendra Modi should be made prime
minister, they can do it, easily. But that would not be right. What is right
matters when it comes to making laws and institutions.

Its size,
however large, or zeal, however self-righteous, cannot make a mob the people of
India. The people of India take decisions through Parliament and cannot be
railroaded by a mob.

Do not yield to mobocracy, the Lokpal cannot end corruption

Barring the very corrupt, everyone would support the ongoing campaign against corruption. But not either Team Anna’s specific solution or the means it employs. In fact, there is every reason to oppose and condemn the move to blackmail the government into conceding a very flawed demand.

A monolithic, all-powerful body that would hold every functionary of the state including the judiciary to account, and investigate and prosecute them if necessary, while itself being accountable to no one except to the noble conscience of its exalted members — this, in effect, is Jan Lokpal. If the good Lord delivers on his promise to sambhavami yuge yuge and takes birth as the Lokpal, this might work. But, otherwise, it is completely hostile to democracy, in spirit, principle and practice.

In a democracy, a system of checks and balances is supposed to guard against concentration of power. In India, at present, the judiciary is accountable to no one, and the executive, which controls the administrative machinery that runs the country, is accountable to the legislature.

The legislature is accountable to the people who elect its members. Administrative personnel are supposed to be accountable, as to both performance and ethics, through their chain of command, to the political executive. In practice, the administrative machinery is accountable to no one. This absence of accountability has spawned poor governance and corruption.

But how come the administrative machinery is not accountable to anyone? If the elected offices, manned by people’s representatives, are effective, governance would stream into and light up our lives as naturally as sunlight does. But our elected offices are compromised. They make use of the administrative machinery to filch official funds, sell government patronage and extort money from the public. When administration is thus suborned, only a minority of civil servants stay ethical or even work.

What makes our elected offices so compromised? This is the central question to be addressed in the battle against corruption. Without clarity on this, the battle cannot succeed.

The politics of the world’s largest democracy runs on the proceeds of corruption. All political parties finance their activity through funds that are amassed by loot of the exchequer, sale of patronage and plain extortion. Since political funding is an objective necessity, and the accepted form of funding is corruption, elected offices are compromised.

Even if individual functionaries are not corrupt, the parties they represent run on corruption and are compromised in this fashion. This is true of all parties today. Corruption is not just endemic, but also systemic. Reform of political funding is the key to ending corruption.

All political expenditure should be declared and made contestable by political rivals and watchdog bodies. All validated expenditure must be accounted for, and all sources of financing, fully transparent. Once parties and politicians have transparent funding, they will not need to be corrupt. Corruption will cease to be systemic. Only then can the political executive hold the administrative machinery to account for delivery of governance and ethical conduct.

A Lokpal only offers a layer of deterrence. This is like relying on tough inspection alone to check automobile pollution, without making cleaner fuel available, minus lead and sulphur, and without an engine technology upgrade. Similarly, without institutional reform of political funding, corruption cannot be tackled. Yes, we need deterrence as well. A strong Lokpal is essential. The entire political executive, including the PM, and senior civil servants should come within its purview.

But neither the judiciary nor Parliament can be accountable to this ombudsman. The judiciary must be independent of the Lokpal to keep a check on it. And Parliament’s accountability should be directly to the people. If MPs misbehave, voters must have the right to recall them.

It is entirely justified for a popular agitation to press for reform of laws and institutions. So, the Anna mobilisation is most welcome. But not its disdain for the institutions and procedures of democracy or its demand to overturn the system of checks and balances that makes democracy work.

If it is sufficient to mobilise a million people in Delhi, leave alone the lakh Anna has brought out, to demand that Mayawati or Narendra Modi should be made prime minister, they can do it, easily. But that would not be right. What is right matters when it comes to making laws and institutions.

Its size, however large, or zeal, however self-righteous, cannot make a mob the people of India. The people of India take decisions through Parliament and cannot be railroaded by a mob.